Joanna Gemma Auguri

In the organizer's words:

With "Nuts of Ay", Berlin electronic pop duo Tarwater (Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram) released their thirteenth album in November 2024 and their first since "Adrift" (2014). It's a beautiful and elegant album that brings Tarwater's various pasts into a high-definition present and once again brings the duo into a productive dialog with all sorts of companions.

As usual, Tarwater's music is characterized by hypnotic pop, and this is particularly evident on "Nuts of Ay" when a song like "Hideous Kiss" loops jangling guitars, pastoral flute and shimmering electronics into a jewel-like structure. While the lyrics are occasionally penned by Lippok and Jestram, the pair also continue the long-standing Tarwater tradition of adapting the words of others. This time the range is wide: poems by Derek Jarman ("All Nuns") and Millner Place ("Trapdoor Spider") sit alongside lyrics by Jean Kenbrovin ("I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"), the late Shane MacGowan ("USA") and again John Lennon ("Everybody Had a Hard Year").
Ten years have passed since the previous album, but Lippok and Jestram have remained active with other projects. They have worked with Masha Qrella, Immersion and Iggy Pop, produced radio plays with Kai Grehn based on texts by Nick Cave and William S. Burroughs and recorded music for several radio crime scenes.

According to Jestram and Lippok, the fact that there was no concept for the album may seem surprising given its holistic mood, but the two explain that it "grew together like a coral reef in the studio over a period of several years". Allowing an album to grow and mutate naturally without an overarching framework. An unforced collection of material, then, that nonetheless inhabits a similar space, one in which guitars writhe like driftwood alongside amorphous, watery electronics, Lippok's whimsical yet utterly compelling voice riding atop songs that pulse and soar with strange, unpredictable rhythms.
At the same time, elements of other music can be discerned: Links to psychedelic folk, Bowie in Berlin, Burial and the film music of Popol Vuh. This music has a strong sense of place - whether in the world or in the mind - and the twelve songs on "Nuts of Ay" have a similar presence; a shared mood, a shared world, a shared sense of the possibilities of what electronic pop music could and should be. A bold and brave pop experiment.


Joanna Gemma Auguri will present her new record Hiraeth (Duchess Box) live at UT. An impressive range of instruments, sounds and her fantastic voice. Elegant music with a darker pop appeal.

HIRAETH is a dream of the unconscious, it is a solace, a place where the unsaid finds a form. Music that gives space to all the emotions that lie dormant within us. The songs tell of the vulnerable side of being human, the fears and dreams that may not be realizable, and the place we may never reach. There is perhaps immeasurable power and inspiration in all these longings. And if the world is coming to an end, this is the perfect, bittersweet soundtrack to it.
Post-Punk magazine describes the single What we call love as follows: "The song itself is a masterful blend of sultry tones and seductive melodies, reminiscent of the smoky vocal purrs of Portishead's Beth Gibbons and the ethereal soundscapes of Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser. With its jazzy undertones and a 60s vibe that harks back to the likes of Scott Walker and The Tindersticks, the track weaves a rich tapestry of sound that is both chill-inducing and romantically evocative. The piano and percussion elements, in particular, echo Fraser's collaboration with Massive Attack, creating a mesmerizing ambiance that softly vibrates the tiny hairs up and down your arms."

The visuals for this evening are by Lillevan.

Price information:

plus Geb.